PS4 has had a great marketing campaign, it has generally sold a lot of consoles on hype alone, have Nintendo now awoken to the sound of the hype train? 

Mario Kart 8- This is the first example of Nintendo really building up hype for a game in ages, we saw lots of trailers, the anti gravity was pushed hard and the now famous Luigi death stare is etched into the gaming communities minds.

Smash Bros- Teasers galore, character reveals left right and centre, demo booths at events and even Amiibo support. This games is hyped to the max, and it will pay off this holiday season

Digital event/ treehouse- This was a big surprise to most, it was slick, brash and stuffed with content, it got people talking about Nintendo again in a good way. I dare say it has already swayed some of the Wii U critics to finally consider buying one. The treehouse event was great for gaining exposure also, tons of gameplay footage and trailers to hype up those upcoming titles.

Hyrule Warriors- Another game that seems to be getting a push from Nintendo, we are seeing character reveals, fan service galore and regular trailers ( the latest one sealed the deal for me ).

Since Mario Kart 8, Nintendo do seem to be making greater strides to create hype, advertise more aggressively and generally creating a bigger buzz for Wii U and its games. There is a long way to go, but i like this sudden change in attitude, i hope they sustain the momentum. What are your thoughts??

They should really do more for Bayonetta 2, though!

I don't think it has much to do with Nintendo.
It's more or less the Nintendo fans that are doing extra shifts this gen to hype everything that's coming out.

Nintendo brings the content and the events but I think that was always the case. It's just that they hype is more visible now.

Lets not draw any conclusions here. Nintendo sometimes seems to know what gamers want, but at other times it's like they don't even know in the slightest the f*ck they're doing. However now they're doing a great job at winning gamers over.

Agreed. They need to hype this game till the limit. 

The way Nintendo is doing is by the content they are bringing up. Its their exclusive bringing the hype to the Wii U. They arent marketing it as good as how PS4 do it but Wii U hype is by the games coming soon.
But its a good thing because it shows how many people anticipate the games of the Wii U.

Heck, I don't have any immediate plans to get a WiiU (PS4 first, WiiU after,) and I'M hyped about SSB. =D Always loved those games, as well as Mario Kart, and with the exception of the Wii (which broke a couple of years ago and I sorta haven't gotten around to replacing T_T ) I make Nintendo my key console for local multiplayer and fun with friends on the couch. :3

....that came out wrong.

On another note, does anyone miss the kind of... floatier physics of the original SSB? Might just be me, but I always felt like the characters kind of leapt around like Wire-Fu movies, floating about all graceful like and lending an added element of strategy and forethought to fights. The more recent ones seemed to make the characters a lot 'weightier,' which is more realistic, but kind of removes that element of ponderous, aerial combat.

...again, it might just be me. xP Recently been playing the first one on an emulator, so it could just be the emulator at work.

Ya it seems like they are now focusing more on trying to get public awareness out for there games instead of sending them out to die like they did with a few last year.

I just really wish they would have had something to build off the success of Mario Kart 8 a little earlier, waiting til Aug/Sept for Hyrule Warriors is a bit of a wait.

One can only hope. Their E3 treehouse coverage was exellent! But I still haven't seen much ads for the actual Wii U tho....

They've always knew about the hype, just not utilized it in a significant way.